Crazy whirlwind kind of crazy!!

Hello familia!

So today as already been a great day. We went to the Waffle House again (same one i went to a year ago) and I still LOVE it there, the waffles are divine, it was a great start to the week.

We had a family night at the mission home on Monday with the Temple president and his wife there. It was really fun, and the lesson was on recognizing the spirit more, and they told some really neat stories. Also found out that they both went to Weber High and were high school sweethearts. Hmmmm that sounds really familiar?? That was a fun connection.

There are a lots of little details of things that happened this week but, I really just want to share what I have been observing. With these new converts and the ones from the previous year when I was in this area before. Sister Butt and I are just HAPPY when we are around them, they have a light, and are just excited about the gospel and what others to know and to do what they are doing. We had given Paco a Liahona and he had started to read it, his roommate who has never really had much interest in what we've had to say, looked at it and was just kinda flipping through it. All of the sudden one day Paco realized it had gone missing, and that his roommate had taken it and had been reading through all of the talks. SCORE! haha, Paco was on track saying that he was just going to act like he hadn't taken his precious magazine, and we have now formed a plot where we are going to strategically bring over other Liahonas so his roommate and just happen to pick it up and read them. Genius. He is just doing so great, and has a calling and is already trying to help and serve in the church, always says hi to everyone. He is great.

I am grateful towards the end of my mission to see some of these new converts really be converted to the gospel. It is so fun! It is a treat for us to go over to their home and see their excitement. It is an aspect that helps keep us going. There are lots of aspects to the conversion process and I am grateful that I have been able to see them. Things are crazy and busy, and we will be getting a new mission president this weekend. We are excited for the changes and all that will be happening with missionary work. This weekend is temple weekend! We are going to get everyone there! That is our goal!!

Love you all, have a great week!!

Hermana Coleman

Baptism!!!

So Ingrid was baptized this past Saturday and it was amazing!!! She felt so good, and different- she just kinda bounces around everywhere now- we taught her Sunday night and she already has a calling, and is preparing to go to the temple the end of this month. She is so excited- and wants her family to be a part of it. Her family came from Miami to see it, and it was so great! We just love her. Sister Butt was saying how lucky we were to be a part of this- the Lord has been preparing her for so many years, as well as her cousin, we were so lucky to help see this part of the conversion process!!!!!

Paco is still doing really well, he also has a calling, and is learningn so much, has great questions and a very strong testimony.

We were able to go contact some referrals this past week, and were able to meet some great people and get some new investigators whom have potential. All of them are referrals or family members of recent converts/less-actives so that is fun!

It is getting hotter and hotter. It is insane. Also crazy rain storm, umbrellas did nothing for us, it was fun though, we were able to have a lesson with our branch mission leader in his doorway about missionary work!!

We were able to contact some former investigators, and had some funny experiences with that. Surprising ones actually, where I had to eat insanely spicy chicken- been a while since that had to happen- and carbonation is NOT the remedy.

A lot of this week was spent preparing Ingrid, and contacting referrals and formers. It was a lot of fun, and we learned so much! We received 31 new missionaries into the mission on Wednesday and so there is so much more help, and ways that we need to serve them! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are so organized, it is amazing, and we are loving seeing how amazing things happen when you do it in the Lord's way. He has to be so pleased with all of his missionaries starting their service, I know he is! This is a great work, and I am so happy to be witnessing it. It is historic!!

Love you all!

Sister Coleman

Hello Familia

Hello familia!

Good good week! So Ingrid is going to be getting baptized this Saturday!! She has family coming up from Miami, and she is so excited. We saw her almost every night this week, and even had a temple square sister from Honduras come and meet their family. That was fun. She is learning so much and accepting everything. She loves the conference talks, and was able to share her testimony of living prophets to her in-laws. Sister Butt and I were talking about how we haven't done anything, it is all the Lord, we show up and he teaches her. We love going though because her 2 year old and 1 year old scream "MUCHACHAS!!" when ever we come. Makes us feel loved haha.

Paco is doing really well. He received the priesthood yesterday and he is just so happy. He wants us to come over all the time too. Haha. We are preparing him to go to the temple the 28th of June. He is excited.

We played soccer Friday and we had some investigators from both of the branches to show up, somehow they convinced both Sister Butt and I to play. That was a treat.

A family got baptized in the branch this week! A mom and her two kids, she has two others as well. it was so exciting, she had friends and family come, and we were able to meet some great people and talk to a less-active who she is friends with and hadn't been to church in 15 years! It was a beautiful day.

The Lord has a lot of ready people here, so we are busy with the other missionaries trying to see them, set up appointments and follow-up. There is a lot to do. I was on exchanges this past Saturday and we found some new investigators for their teaching pool. We explained the apostasy like a puzzle- losing some of the pieces and they said it totally made sense. One of them actually has family members who are members of the church. We almost didn't stop to talk to them because we were running late. So glad we did! That is one thing our mission president is pushing, talk to everyone. Trying to get better at that, and not just be in a hurry the whole time. I am always in a hurry and trying to figure out how to do things faster (hmmmm, I wonder where i get that from?) so the Lord is teaching me patience. I think about how much patience the Lord has to have with us, his imperfect servants, and it helps me to have more patience with others, and with the work. It is a work in progress! I love serving here, with these amazing people. I am grateful to be learning from their testimonies and faith, they have amazing faith and I am learning from their examples. Ingrid is just going forward with what she knows to be true, she is amazing! And is such an example to us. I am grateful to be here, experiencing this right now!
Love you all! I know that this gospel is true, and that is changes lives everyday if we let it.

Sister Coleman

Hello Everyone

This has been quite the week. So we have pretty much seen Ingrid every day this week (she still likes having us come over, she is amazing) and she accepted a date to be baptized!! She is so prepared, and her cousin has been preparing her for a while now, it was just the right timing. She has amazing questions and we love teaching her. We are crossing our fingers for this weekend!!

We had some great lessons this week teaching about prophets- neat experience. We were on exchanges and I was here with Sister Isaak. We were teaching a recent convert family along with her non-member mom (who speaks portugese) along with another recent convert who speaks english, swedish and portugese. Talk about con-fusing. haha but it was great! we showed two mormon messages- one by President Monson, and the other by Elder Holland. It really related to the family (inspiration- not credited to us at all....) and they loved it and got emotional. They felt something, and we can almost see their testimonies in living prophets start to grow, it is really neat.

Paco is doing well. we are starting to get him pumped up to go to the temple. We found out a couple days ago that Sister butt and I get to go do the translating for the convert spanish baptisms on the 4th friday of June. Score!! Paco and Ingrid will be able to go, so we are so stoked to be there and are going to do everything we can to help them get there.

We had some miracles of member referrals this week. We were just in the right place at the right time (by inspiration of course) and the Lord provided people who he needed us to teach. We are having a lot of adventures and my mind really can't keep up with everything.

Enjoying reading the conference talks lately, and trying to apply them to the circumstances that we are in.

I hope all is well, and I hope that you have an amazing week!!

Love,

Sister Coleman

Good Week!

 

Good week, The weeks keep getting busier and busier, which is a good think! I wouldn't ask for it any other way. We were able to teach some good lessons with our investigators and found some new people who were interested in learning about more. I got to go to a trailer park that i taught people in about 9 months ago. We met a man named Alejandro- and I felt like I new him! He understood the apostosy and said he needed a Bible, we gave in a Book of Mormon instead and said we owuld get the Bible for him later. Lucky him! and Us! He is just so great, and the other sisters have an apointment with him this week. Also re-met another woman, she let us bless her home and said we could come back! She felt the spirit so we hope to keep teaching her.

We were able to teach Alex and Odalys this week, it went really well, the youngest everytime we come over says "Hola Elder Coleman!!" Sister Butt and I die everytime, we keep trying to correct her, but I guess it is cuter that way.

So Paco was baptized! He was nervous all week, but us, the other sisters, and the elders were each able to teach him and help him get ready. The baptism went really well and there were a lot of investigators there.

Ok best part of the week!!!!

So we have been struggling with referrals for a couple weeks now, it is acutally really weird, usually you have 1 or 2 a week but we have had 1 or 2 in like 3 weeks. So we prayed Saturday night for more help to be more aware, and to get a referral! So while we were waiting for Paco to change after his baptism, we were walking down the hall towards the relief society room. This hispanic woman walks around the corner and I ask her if she is a family member of someone because we didn't recognize her. and tells us that she is new here, and that she looked the church up online and came! We just kinda stared at her in shock i think for about 10 seconds, didn't even introduce ourselves, and just asked her if we could take her on a church tour while we waited for he baptism to recommence. WHAT!! We were so excited, apparently she had gone to church twice in Florida with a cousin who is a member and she loved how much she learned, so she wanted to come back! WHAT! So she sat next to the relief society president during church, we talked about hte articles of faith in gospel principles and she loved that and she loved relief society, we set up an appointment with her for Tuesday, and asked if she had a Book of Mormon. She said, oh yeah i was going to ask you if i could have one. WHAT! So yep great Sunday, Heavenly Father totally answered our prayers and gave us a "referral" from Him haha. We are so excited to get to know her better.

Things are going well, looking forward to some meetings and other great things these coming weeks before transfers. Hope you all make it a great week!